


In a Different Life

by samariumwriting



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Chrom and Male My Unit | Reflet | Robin are a Couple, Cultural Differences, Diplomacy, Friends to Lovers, Languages, M/M, Racism, Religion, Twin Robins, Twins
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2020-03-17 03:40:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18957142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/samariumwriting/pseuds/samariumwriting
Summary: The whole of Ylisse stands at the edge of a cavern, and Plegia would push the whole continent down it, if they could. That's how it seemed to Emmeryn, to Chrom. That nothing they could do would stop the flow of the tides of war.And then the Hierophant comes up with a suggestion. Create a tie between Plegia's Grimleal, baying for war, and Ylisse, crying out for peace. Something that could never break the peace, so long as the contract remained. Chrom knows he has to take the chance. It's all he can do.





	In a Different Life

**Author's Note:**

> This is a rewrite of a fanfic I started ages ago and never finished, long before I even played Fire Emblem Awakening. But now I've played the game and I have maaaajor Chrobin feels, so it's coming back.

If you were to stand at the border between Plegia and Ylisse (which you really wouldn’t, because it was on the whole far, far too dangerous), you’d think there was open warfare. The bases of each army were barely a hundred paces apart. The area never slept, always someone out on watch. Always someone manning the machine guns.

Every single soldier was a hair’s breadth from a firearm of some kind. Every single one of them was waiting for the order to fire, and they had been for weeks. There had been no order to stand down. No one was expecting one.

It was, well, a less than ideal situation for everyone involved. Were the countries to go war, there would be no real victor. Plegia would, perhaps, make it to Ylisstol. They’d slaughter hundreds of thousands along the way, and likely lose more. But what they wanted was nigh on impossible to gain. They’d never manage it in a front-on assault, and both sides would lose everything for nothing in return.

And if, by chance, Ylisse broke through into Plegia, what would they do with that? The slaughter of hundreds of thousands. A capitulation from Plegia. A grudge, held longer than ever before. Two nations weakened by charity, forced into the hands of an overbearing westerly neighbour to keep their finances above a line of absolute poverty.

It was naturally not a war that anyone truly wanted. Everyone knew it was a bad idea. But everything had escalated so far that no one could back down. Not without risking a stab in the back, or setting a dangerous precedent for future conflicts. Because there would be future conflict. Ever since Gangrel rose to the throne, every sentence was a provocation, every second moving closer to a confrontation.

Emmeryn watched the situation near-constantly from Ylisstol. She would be there, attempting to negotiate, to allay the fears of the soldiers and those local to the border. But she knew she couldn’t; she wasn’t allowed. The risk to her life would be too great, because Gangrel wanted her dead far more than she wanted any harm to come to him. And if she left the capital, the fear of the people would reach fever pitch. She wouldn’t be able to justify that to herself, even with how worried she was.

Instead, she was spending hours upon hours in phone conversations, working out plans, trying to think of something, anything, that could at least delay the impending conflict. More negotiations, more attempts to find out exactly what Gangrel wanted (her death, the Emblem, the suffering of millions), more anything.

Yet, when she found something that could work...it was hard to commit herself to do it. There had to be another option. She tried to think of everything she could, yet the only other thing that came to mind was unthinkable. Sacrificing herself in an attempt to show her commitment to peace could work. But it would take her life in the process, and she didn’t think she could do that to anyone.

So that left only the one option. She didn’t want to resort to that, of course. How could she? It wasn’t her life or her future she was putting on the line, and yet...one future, one life. One meaningful agreement that could save the lives of millions of people across Ylisse.

“And those are the only terms you’ll accept?” she asked. She’d been awake for eighteen hours, and in calls for the last four. She wondered if her Plegian was still understandable, because she was so tired that she wasn’t even sure if all the words were making it out of her mouth anymore. She was exhausted.

“Bar the removal of the Ylissean exaltship and the transfer of the Fire Emblem and Falchion to Plegia, yes.” They’d given up on speaking to Gangrel; now, the negotiations were being conducted with Validar, the head of the Grimleal. And, most likely, the power behind the throne.

“Then we can discuss the matter in full in an emergency peace conference?” she asked. This was not the kind of thing she could finalise in a phone conversation. The topics involved...they didn’t even concern herself. She definitely needed to talk to Chrom about what had to be done.

There was always the possibility that he’d refuse, of course. She wouldn’t blame him, if he did. She’d always emphasised to him that she didn’t want the past to hold him back in the same way it weighed on her, and yet she was asking himself to take the past with both hands and tangle himself up in it in maybe the worst possible way.

“Of course,” Validar replied. There was an edge to his voice, and Emmeryn was perfectly aware that some elements of this were a trap. The deal was too good to be anything but, but that was what diplomacy was, sometimes. An endless series of attempts to outmaneuver each other. It was a good job that she actually knew what the man wanted. “Yet how can we guarantee our safety, coming to Ylisse?”

“It is safer than Plegia for any of my contingent,” she said. There was always Ferox, but it was perhaps even more dangerous that someone from a more ‘neutral’ country would take justice into their own hands. “I am sure you understand that you cannot bring more than a handful of personal bodyguards over the border?”

“Of course,” he said. “Yet how do you expect me to believe that your soldiers and citizens have the discipline to keep us safe from harm?”

“Ylisseans have a commitment to the peace,” she said firmly. Plegia would lose much from the conflict, of course, but their country favoured the war. That much was undeniable. “No one wishes to see any action taken that would bring us back to this situation once more.”

“Then I think we have an understanding,” he said. “I will discuss this matter with His Highness, and I imagine you have much the same to do on your end.”

Emmeryn didn’t dignify that with a response. She knew what Validar was implying; that maybe, Chrom would refuse. That he would never want this, never want to seal such a deal with a Plegian. And maybe he was right. But this was the last thing she could think of, bar the unthinkable possibility of showing everyone the true cost of war. She had to have faith that Chrom would agree to this.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you very much for reading! Leaving a comment would be super appreciated.


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